'Robbers' Opens At Asolo Tonight

The FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training opens The Robbers by Friedrich Schiller tonight with a special pay-what-you-can performance.

Tonight only, audience members are invited to attend a production of The Robbers and pay whatever they feel comfortable paying for their ticket.

The Robbers is a new adaptation by Klaus van den Berg, and runs through March 11 at the Cook Theatre in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota.

For the rest of the production's run, tickets are $28 evenings; $27 matinees. Students receive 50 percent off with advance ticket purchase. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Asolo Rep’s box office at the FSU Center for Performing Arts; 941-351-8000.

In this sprawling epic by one of the titans of German theater, two brothers wage war against each other for power and the love of their father.

The limits of personal liberty are stretched as one brother plots through diabolical court intrigue and the other sets up camp in the Bohemian forest, forcing liberty through revolutionary anarchy.

This story, written more than two centuries ago, about the violent overthrow of the status quo by a younger generation, "seems ripped from today's international headlines," says Greg Leaming, director of the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training.

Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) was part of the sturm und drang ("storm and stress") literary movement in Germany during the mid-to late-18th century. Taking inspiration from Shakespeare’s strong focus on character, writers from this movement often created characters who were victims of their environment, reacting in either violent or passive ways—or both.

"The Robbers was Schiller's first play—written when he was just 21. It's a passionate and deeply moving portrait of good and evil," says Leaming. "Schiller creates a stark drama that explores human fears, desires and ideals. It's extremely timely and an ideal vehicle for our second-year acting students." He adds that the production showcases the talents of the entire second-year Conservatory acting class.

The director of this production, David Kennedy, says that The Robbers "is an enthralling drama with action-packed plot twists, dramatic irony and a brilliant villain at its core.” He's staged the play in a modern setting that reflects "some of the artistic and social upheavals of the last two generations—from punk rock to the political violence of the 1960s and 70s."

“The Robbers is about young people who reject everything their parents stand for,” says Kennedy. “It’s very much a story of a counterculture that becomes untethered from the best of its ideals. I’m interested in the way groups of young people in the late 60s and early 70s—the Weather Underground or the Baader Meinhof gang—became so despairing about the state of things that they saw revolutionary violence as the only solution to address the problems of a corrupt society."

In this production, Kennedy says he hopes to explore "where radicalization comes from, how it functions, and what the end result of it is—not just for society as a whole, but for the people involved."

David Kennedy is the associate artistic director of Westport Country Playhouse, where he directed Suddenly Last Summer,Beyond Therapy, and Dinner With Friends.

From 2004 to 2008, he was the associate artistic director of Dallas Theater Center, where he directed The Violet Hour, I Am My Own Wife, Thom Pain (based on nothing), Moonlight and Magnolias, Glengarry Glen Ross, and The Misanthrope, as well as readings of new plays by Denis Johnson, Peter Morris, and Marcus Gardley.

In 2003, he co-founded the Toronto ensemble, The Lunar Society, for which he wrote and directed Brighter than the Light of the Sun, a co-production with Nova Scotia’s Ship’s Company Theatre.

He has also directed at the Wilma Theater, Clarence Brown Theatre Company, The Summer Cabaret in New Haven (where he served as artistic director), Hangar Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theater, The Old Globe Theatre’s Graduate Conservatory, Prospect Theater Company, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and 78th Street Theatre Lab.

Kennedy is a former Phil Killian Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a Drama League Directing Fellow, and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Performances are Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2 p.m.